Play Playoff Football

Two things the Commanders are missing are defense and the running game. 

Those two things weigh pretty heavy when playoffs roll around. Washington has seven games left to develop some semblance of a running game and a defense to mount a playoff push. It isn't impossible to do. I know some probably think it is useless to try. Some are way too eager to pitch the coaching staff into the trash. 

It is the best thing for the team to make a playoff run. There will be guys from this year's team who will be retained. They need the experience. How big for Sam Howell's career would a playoff appearance be in his first year starting? 

Sam has performed well in tough situations and in difficult NFL venues. It all bodes well for the future. But being in the playoffs would jack his progress up even further. 

The ball circulation was good against Seattle. The passing game was effective. That was good and bad. The Seahawks ran 74 plays. They can't run 74 plays if they don't have the ball. The Defense is responsible for keeping them off the field. But there are teams we play that can beat ANY defense. 

So for this team I'm going to say TEAM DEFENSE is most effective and part of team defense is RUNNING THE FOOTBALL. 

I don't want to get blue in the face with this. It is hard to run when the passing game is working so well. You can't in some respects be in rythym in the passing game if you don't pass. Yet, you also want to get your team into the winnability zone. Recognize when your defense is having issues. Give them time to freshen up, cogitate, adjust, and restore.

Keeping in mind that big plays in the passing game often come when the defense respects your running game. If you don't run at all the likelihood of taking the top off the defense is not very good. Long pass plays to McLaurin, Dotson, and Brown become possible when the blocked artery to the running game is opened up. They should be making shocking TD grabs on top of the defense post running game effectiveness. So shocking it makes you sneeze and spill the popcorn all over your wife. Fifty plus yard plays. Surprise Jack in the Box TDs.

Another defensive quality to the running game is its propensity to make the opposing offense "antsy". You are asking your opponent to hurry their big plays. Here is where the turnovers come. Patience is a highly valuable skill in football and on offense in particular. Hurried, forced throws, panic to make a play. Picked off! Fumble! That's when it happens. You make your opponent impatient on offense. It's mental play action. The offense overpursues. That's good defense. And you turn that screw, you lobotomize your opponent's patience, at least in part, with the running game.

That sense of futility so heavy in losing football sets in with each passing first down. We need to get the ball back. We're two scores down. We're three scores down. The clock is running out. Damn, that's ball game. I didn't touch the ball the whole third quarter. Frustrating as hell.

Like Mark Schlereth was saying this past week: That's on the inside of guys. You are beating them in their guts. 

It's not something you force. You feel your way. Maybe you run off a boot. Find a way to turn circulatory passing into circulatory running. Maybe a draw that was looking like a screen. If you have to put whip cream on it to get you thinking about it do it. It helps with marriages and with running the ball.

Dollars to donuts, if the Commanders develop the run, they will develop their defense. 

I thought at the beginning of the year, the Commander Defense might have trouble playing with a scoring offense. It is not like playing with a ball control offense. When you have plenty time off to restore and strategize. It is plain they weren't ready for their own offense being this competent.

They were ready scheme wise. The 4-2-5? Suggests they were expecting some shoot-outs. But as Shakespeare once said: The play is the thing. And the play is a living, corpuscular, muscle memory type deal. Like swimming in the ocean, you don't know what you are in for until the Captain throws you overboard. 

It is ironic. To make the playoffs, the Commanders will have to learn to run the ball and play defense. Which to my mind is perfect.

That is what EVERYBODY will have to do to win in the playoffs. 

It's a tautology, I'm sorry. But to make the playoffs you have to play playoff football.

To ask them not to play playoff football just to get rid of the coaches is asking them to suck and get into the habit of sucking. As a carryover to next year. So Josh Harris can suck.

The habit of sucking is an intergenerational curse just as the habit of making the playoffs is an intergenerational blessing.